We caught an early train into Florence and met up with our tour group without any issues. They had us board a double decker travel bus and away we went towards San Gimignano. It's a medieval town built in 59 BC, all stone and full now of shops and restaurants, hotels and tourists. The guide told us that back in the day, when you built a house, you built a tower for two reasons--protection and a show of wealth. The higher the tower, the wealthier a person was. This created somewhat of a competition between the residents and the city is FULL of towers! We were told to try the local white wine called Vernacci, and a country winning gelato place. Rich jumped the gun and bought some gelato at a shop, and of course, we came across the award winner a few feet away--naturally, he had to try it, too. I was happy with our wine stop so I only had some from the first place. Back on the bus (and by the way, this was a double decker holding 80!!!), and we were on our way to Monteriggioni. It's another medieval city that is much smaller than the first place, and really mostly geared for tourists. We were only given 30 minutes to explore, so no time really to enjoy the ambience. That would be my only complaint about the whole day. We had one more place to visit, but first we stopped at a Chianti place for some wine tasting. I don't like red wine, but managed to choke it down. :)) They also served us lunch, pretty good for a mass serving, and it was included in our tour price. Final stop was Siena--it's a thriving city and mostly known for their medieval buildings and the horse races they hold twice a year. Our guide took us to the piazza where they race the horses, it's an event that they plan for all year and is over in about 90 seconds! LOL The different neighborhoods compete and win money but mostly prestige. He was pretty funny telling us about all the competitors and their nicknames. He gave us a guided tour of the city--lots of old buildings and history there. And tourists, of course. Can't get away from them! Once we were back on the bus and headed for Florence, Rich checked the train schedule and we realized that if we didn't catch the 8:47 pm train, we would have to wait for the next one which was at 10:20 pm! The train station is NOT where I want to spend my time. It was close but we zoomed off the bus as soon as it stopped, and made our way to buy tickets. We boarded with 7 minutes to spare! A very fun day in Tuscany!